Zhu Lin is amassing another impressive list of victories in the US this week after her success in Canada just last week. Pi Hongyan is the latest player to fall to the on form Chinese player, as Zhu Lin defeated the French 2nd seed in two games to book her place in the semi finals. The semi final is a rematch of the Canadian Open final against Juliane Schenk of Germany. The 3rd seed has failed to drop a game on route to the semi finals and will want to avenge her defeat last week.

Rajiv Ouseph is through to the semi final of the men’s singles with two game victory over Shon Wan Ho of Korea, he sets up a match against Derek Wong Zillang of Singapore in the last 4. The other semi final sees the 9th seed Brice Leverdez, who defeated the 4th seeded Hsieh Yu Hsing in the quarter final play unseeded Japanese player Yuichi Ikeda for a place in Saturday’s final.

The American interest is down to just one, with Chew and Ho losing out at the quarter final stages of the men’s doubles to Kim and Shin of Korea, whose reward for defeating the American pair is a semi final match against the top seeded Fang and Lee of Chinese Taipei. Bach and Gunawan are safety into the final four with a routine victory but have their toughest test to date in the semi final against the 3rd seded Chen and Lin of Chinese Taipei.

Top seeds in the mixed doubles Mateusiak and Zieba are safely into the last 4 with their 3rd two game victory of the week. They will play their first seed of the week in the semi finals, 3rd seeded Lee and Chien of Chinese Taipei. The 2nd seeded pair of Wallwork and Robertson were defeated in the quarter finals, beaten by the 6th seeds Chen and Cheng. They will play the German pair of Fuchs and Overzier in the last 4.

Day 2 provided yet more surprises as more seeds toppled at the last 16 stage. Carl Baxter, Petr Koukal and Scott Evans came through the opening day without losing a game between them but all fell on Day 2. Scott Evans took the opening game against the 4th seeded Hsing Hsieh Tzu 21-6, only to lose the next two matches 21-9, 21-9. 3rd seed Rajiv Ouseph is safely through to the quarter finals and will play Shon Wan Ho of Korea, the 7th seed.

The top three seeds in the women’s draw have all progressed into the last 8, 2nd seeded Pi Hongyan plays last weeks winner in Canada, Zhu Lin of China in the quarter finals. Juliane Schenk lost out to Zhu Lin in last weeks final and will want revenge this week. Her quarter final opponent is Singapore’s Fu Mingtian who defeated 8th Anu Nieminen in the opening round. Judith Meulendijks is also safely through, the 4th seed will play Ma Pai Hsiao of Chinese Taipei in the last 8.

There has been double success in the men’s doubles for the US, with two partnerships making it to the last 8. Chew and Ho are the lesser known of the duo but will get the chance to make a name for themselves as they are last on the main court on Thursday’s order of play against unseeded pair Kim and Shin of Korea. Bach and Gunawan have been in fine form as they have reached the last 8 without the loss of a game. They will play Chou and Lin of Chinese Taipei in the quarter final stage.

The top two seeds in the mixed doubles are safely into the last 8 also, with top seeds Mateusiak and Zieba in impressive form with two dominating wins to reach the quarter final stage. They will take on Ng and Jiang of Canada in their last 8 match. 2nd seeded Wallwork and Robertson have been equally impressive, with the loss of just 30 points in their two matches to date. Their quarter final test will be the biggest one to date, as they play the 6th seeded pair from Chinese Taipei, Chen and Cheng.

The first day of the Yonex Canada Open 2010 has concluded with mostly Canadian players in contention today along with some younger international players, the victors of today’s games will find themselves thrust into battle with the World’s best tomorrow. Also present in the qualifying rounds however were some future Korean prospects, as well as some retired Indonesian stars like Ronne Runtulalo and his partners Sandiarto Sandiarto in the doubles, and Jo Novita in the mixed doubles.

Tomorrow we can look forward to matches from players like Taufik Hidayat, Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach, and several more of the world’s best.

For the first time in over a decade Canada is hosting a grand prix event worthy of the world’s top players. Today we arrived in Richmond, Canada (a suburb of Vancouver) to begin coverage of this groundbreaking event. Bobby Milroy, president of ClearOne Sports was on hand to tell us a little bit about the event.

With several World and Olympic Champions on deck the event promises to be a fantastic one. The qualifying rounds begin Tuesday July 13, and main round matches begin on Wednesday. The draws are available online now at the link below:

This week’s Super Series gives some of the top seeds from last week a chance to redeem themselves but also allows some unlikely winners an opportunity to continue their excellent vein of form. Peter Gade has returned to Denmark to prepare for the World Championships but there is still an excellent turnout of the world’s top players. Lee Chong Wei will hope for a better week than in Singapore as the top seed looks to regain the form that took him to All-England success in March. Peter Gade may not be in the draw, but Taufik Hidayat is a more than acceptable replacement for the Dane as the 2nd seed this week. Last weeks beaten finalist Boonsak Ponsana is also in the draw, seeded 4th and last weeks winner Sony Kuncoro is the 7th seed this week. There is also some young hopefuls in the draw, such as 5th seeded Jan O Jorgensen and 8th seeded Kenichi Tago.

Saina Nehwal has a fantastic chance to repeat the success from last week as she is the top seed and Pi Hongyan, seeded 2 has withdrawn pre-tournament. Zhou Mi has been unable to consistently win at the Super Series level but the 3rd seed is a handful for any player on her day. Eriko Hirose will want to put her first round defeat last week behind her, the Japanese #1 is seeded 4 for the event.

Koo and Tan are the top seeds in the men’s doubles and hope to go a lot further than their second round defeat last week. 2nd seeded Kido and Setiawan will want to go one better than their loss in the final on Sunday in Singapore. Bach and Gunawan of the USA are the 5th seeds this week and will look to build on a solid performance last week in Singapore.

The top two seeds in the mixed doubles are set for a rematch this week as Widianto and Natsir are seeded 1 and Laybourn and Rytter Juhl are the 2nd seeds this week. Lee Hyo Jung continues with her new partner Kim Min Jung and they are seeded 5 for the event. The 6th seeded Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork will want to put their shock first round defeat from last week behind them with a solid performance this week.

Semi Final day in Singapore had local players Sari and Yao in the last 4 of the Women’s Doubles, where they were the underdogs to beat 4th seed Cheng and Chien of Chinese Taipei. After losing the opening game, the unseeded pair took the next two games to book their place in tomorrow’s final. The will play the 5th seeded Korean pair of Lee and Kim who defeated the other unseeded pair in the draw still, Jauhari and Polii of Indonesia.

The mixed doubles had the top three seeds in the last 4, with the top two making in through to tomorrow’s final. Laybourn and Rytter Juhl, the second seeds defeated the 3rd seeded Gunawan and Marissa in two games. Top seeded Widianto and Natsir are also through after defeating the Chinese Taipei pairing of Chen and Cheng. Cheng Wen Hsing’s excellent week in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles both end at the semi final stage.

Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan rolled back the years again to make the final at the expense of Ko and Yoo of Korea. The 8th seeded pair will take on the unseeded pair of Fang and Lee from Chinese Taipei after they defeated the second seeds, Kido and Setiawan. The 2nd seeds lost tamely in the semi final to continue their poor run of form since their win in France last year.

Top seed Saina Nehwal lived up to her seeding with a three game victory over current world champion Lu Lan, after dropping the opening game 8-21. The other semi final was an all unseeded affair between Korea’s Bae Youn Joo and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying. It was the player from Chinese Taipei who will meet Nehwal in tomorrow’s final after a close two game encounter.

Sony Kuncoro’s excellent week continues as he beat India’s Kashrup Parupalli in two games to book his place in his first final of 2010. Peter Gade, seeded 2 took on the 4th seeded Boonsak Ponsana in the second semi final. Gade took a close opening game before the 4th seed battled back to take the next two tight games to book his place in tomorrows final whilst Gade misses out on his best chance to win a Super Series this year.

Lee Chong Wei played Chen Jin in a 70-minute classic; the pair shared the opening two games before the top seed delighted the local crowd winning the final game 21-15 to book his place in the semi finals. The winner of Tien Minh Nguyen and Jan O Jorgensen would play the top seed Lee Chong Wei, the on-form Dane was having an excellent competition to date but the Vietnamese player was too strong on the day, winning the match 21-17, 22-20.

The bottom half of the draw started with Peter Gade on court against Tanonsak Saensomboonsuk, the 4th seeded Dane was the last seed left on his side of the draw and safely progressed through to the semi finals with a 21-15, 21-13 win. He will play Boonsak Ponsana in the last 4 after his win over Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia, 21-14, 21-9.

Women’s Singles

Wang Yihan was in excellent form once again, this time defeating 5th seeded Jiang Yanjiao 21-13, 21-17 in an all-Chinese affair to book her place in the semi final. Bae Youn Joo won the all-Korean clash in the other quarter final in the top half of the draw, defeating last weeks runner-up Sung Ji Hyun 21-13, 21-19 to set up a match against Wang Yihan.

7th seed Saina Nehwal looked to be coasting into the semi finals against Wang Xin of China, before the unseeded Chinese woman fought back to win the next two games and defeat her seeded opponent 14-21, 21-8, 21-11 to continue her fantastic run in the event. She will play Eriko Hirose of Japan who shocked the 2nd seeded Wang Lin of China to win 21-19, 15-21, 21-19 to set up her encounter with Wang Xin.

Other Matches

Koo and Tan defeated 7th seeded Clark and Robertson to book their place in the last 4, beating the English pair 21-12, 23-25, 21-11. Unseeded Chinese partnership Chai and Zhang defeated Sato and Kawamae of Japan to set up a match with the top seeds Koo and Tan with an impressive 21-11, 21-16 win. The other semi final sees the 4th seeded Chandra and Gunawan, who defeated Bach and Gunawan play Guo and Xu of China.

All four partnerships in the women’s doubles have failed to drop a game to date. Ma and Jin, the top seeds from China set to play the 3rd seeds, Chin and Wong of Malaysia for a place in Sunday’s final. The other semi final sees Du and Yu, seeded 2 from China playing unseeded Korean couple Jung and Yoo of Korea.

The impressive Tao and Zhang have been the story of the mixed doubles this year, they defeated the 5th seeded Gunawan and Marissa to book a place in the semi finals, where they will play the unseeded Chinese Taipei pair Chen and Chou. World champions Laybourn and Rytter Juhl are also through to the last 4, defeating Wallwork and Robertson of England to set up a match against the 8th seeded Prapakamol and Thoungthongkam of Thailand.

The Semi Finals storylines were of two unseeded Chinese players, Bao Chunlai and Wang Xin and their impressive runs to the last four stage of the competition. Bao Chunlai was against 8th seeded Tien Minh Nguyen in the first of today’s semi finals.

The Vietnamese player had breezed into the Semi Final stage without the loss of a game en route and had been on court well under two hours to reach this stage. Bao Chunlai had defeated Peter Gade in the previous round to set up this encounter, spending over 2 and half hours on court to reach the semi final stage.

The first game did little to convince anyone that Bao Chunlai was feeling tired, never letting Nguyen take a led in the opening game that was won 21-15 by the unseeded Chinese player. The second game was a much tighter affair, the pair swapping the lead on various occasions. With the game poised at 12-12, Bao Chunlai 3 points and then four points without reply to take a 20-15 lead. With the second time of asking, Bao Chunlai took the game 21-16 and booked his place in the final.

Wang Xin was next on court, playing Wang Lin seeded 2. The pair had played just last week in China with Wang Lin winning in three games. This was Wang Xin’s 6th match of the week, having come through two rounds of qualifying to just make the main draw. Wang Xin stormed to a 4-0 led in the first game before Wang Lin rallied over the coming points to make the score 13-13.

Wang Xin then won the next six points, taking the first game at the second time of asking 21-15. Both players knew they needed a good start in the second game, Wang Xin stormed to a 5-1 lead, only for the second seed to reel off five points in a row to make it 7-7. However, Wang Xin never led her opponent into the lead in the second game, winning two points as soon as Wang Lin drew level once more. At 18-17, Wang Xin finished her opponent off with three points in a row to take the second game 21-17.

Finals day with have some local interest, with Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna beating second seeded Ma and Kim over Korea to reach the ladies doubles final in the longest match of the day at 75 minutes.

Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan’s run ended today, beaten in three games by Dasuki and Sukmawan of Indonesia. They set up an all-Indonesian final with Kido and Setiawan in the men’s doubles. There is also some European interest in tomorrow’s finals. Fischer Nielsen and Pedersen are through to the final against unseeded Thai pairing Anugritaywon and Voravichitchaikul in tomorrow’s mixed doubles final.

The highest seed remaining in the Mens draw at the quarter final stage was Peter Gade, looking for his first Super Series title since Korea earlier this year. The draw had opened up for him, Lee Chong Wei, out. Chen Jin, withdrawn. Lin Dan, not playing. He had sailed through to the quarterfinals in just over an hour.

Bao Chunlai waited in the Quarter Finals, an ex-World #2 and former Asian Champion, and still only 26. The first set of their encounter was all Bao Chunlai, the Chinese left-hander only surrendered the lead briefly in the middle of the first game before winning six points in a row to set him up for the first game.

The second set had a similar feeling, although Gade was taking the lead in the early part of the set, the Dane led at the mid-game interval 11-10. The pair exchanged points until Bao Chunlai took a 15-14 led, and then came the enslaught, Bao Chunlai reeled over another six points without reply and secured the second game 21-14. It was all over in less than 45 minutes.

The Mens draw has just two seeds remaining, Taufik Hidiyat in the top half of the draw, Tien Minh Nguyen in the bottom half. Hidiyat against Santoro is the first semi final, with a guaranteed Indonesian in the final. Nguyen plays Bao Chunlai in the other semi final.

The Women’s draw has also been littered with Chinese withdrawals, however they could still three players in the last 8. Qualifier Wang Xin is the least known of the three Chinese players left in the draw but her three set winner over Japan’s Mayu Sekiya. Wang Xin burst onto the scene in June, reaching the Malaysian Open Final.

She then took the Phillpine Grand Gold title, beating top seed and world #1 Zhou Mi in the final, she reached the Semi Finals of the China Masters Super Series event just last week, losing out to Wang Lin in three sets.

Tomorrow, she has a chance for revenge against Wang Lin as they play again in the semi finals. The other semi finals has some local interest, with Eriko Hirose playing 4th seeded Wang Yihan for a place in Sunday’s final.

The sub story of the championships has been Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan, since being forced to qualify in Indonesia in June, they rolled back the years at the World Championships. They have reached their first Super Series semi final after defeating Hashimoto and Hirata today in three games.

The draw is dominated by Indonesia at the Semi Final stage, of the 20 pairings/players remaining in the draw, 8 are from Indonesia, 5 from China, 2 from Japan and one from Korea, Thailland, Vietnam, Denmark and the USA.

Round 2 begun with almost half of the seeds already out, the remaining seeds progression would be easier should they come through their matches against unseeded opponents but just like round 1, shock results were set to open the draw up.

Zheng Bo and Ma Jin, second seeds in the mixed event were defeated in three sets by Marissa and Gunawan of Indonesia. With top seeds Lee and Lee pulling out before the event, the Chinese pair were the favourites to win the event. Widianto and Natsir are safely into round 3 with a ominous performance over Kamura and Yonemoto, winning 21-7, 21-8.

Simon Santoso against Lee Chong Wei was the big match of the day; it also provided us with one of the longest matches of the day at 67 minutes. Lee Chong Wei took the opening set 21-19, but after taking a 4-3 lead in the second game, never looked to be in the second game and Santoso took the game 21-15. Santoso continued his excellent form and took at 7-1 lead in the final game, the lead was as high at 16-7 before a Lee Chong Wei comeback took 11 of the next 12 points to take an 18-17 lead. Santoso, unfazed by this brought it back to 19-19 before serving out to take the final game, dumping the top seed out in the second round.

The rest of the seeds in the men’s singles progressed safely into round 3, leaving five out of the eight seeds remaining in the draw at the quarter final stage, with Peter Gade being the top seed remaining in the draw, he plays Bao Chunlai tomorrow.

The Women’s draw has been decimated by pullouts pre-event and the loss of top seed Zhou Mi in Round 1 and there was another casualty today, with third seed Tine Rasmussen losing out to qualifier Wang Xin of China in three sets. Wang Yihan is the last seed remaining in the top half of the draw, with the remaining two seeds, Wang Lin And Pi Hongyan playing for a place in the semi finals tomorrow.

The Bach/Gunawan run also continues, with a 21-14, 21-15 win over Hoshino and Kobayashi to set up a quarter final clash with Hashimoto and Hirata.